Urban landscapes São Paulo

Today at lunch hour, I went out to paint some typical urban landscape scenes in the neighborhood. This one shows a gas station near the highway off ramp, with dense and colourful housing in the background. Everything is a little chaotic and noisy here, and the visuals are very busy, which matches the ambiance 

Gas station dense housing, 6 x 7.5" watercolour February 2026 

Looking towards the overpass, you can see the heavy traffic with cars trucks and motorcyles zipping by. In the background, jungle hills have been replaced with built-up housing and condos on the horizon. A factory and warehouse are nestled in among the residential area. Apparently, zoning laws are not really a thing here in Brazil! 

Traffic residential, 6 x 7.5" watercolour, February 2026 

Magenta dragon fruit

Here is a magenta dragon fruit, actually part of the cactus family. Despite its brilliant  magenta interior, its flavour is rather mild, like a pear or melon. Tiny black seeds have a crunchy consistency like chia. Magenta has had quite a workout on this trip, flowers, trees and fruit like this feature variations that I made primarily with quin magenta (PR122) and purple magenta (PV55). Even though paints are called magenta they are only about half way between red and true magenta. Only one paint falls on magenta, its called carbazol violet (PV23) and its very dark, like purple grape juice concentrate. Next time I come to Brazil in summer (Canadian winter) I will have to remember to bring along some carbazol violet. 

Magenta dragon fruit, 6 x 7.5 " watercolour, February 2026 

New facility in Park Ipe neighborhood

The house is in Park Ipe neighborhood, once a secluded jungle paradise, now its a bustling city soon to get its own metro (subway) stop. They built a small outdoor workout facility nearby, it has tall trees that drop large leaves on the ground. There are several tables here with tile chess boards part of the concrete surface.  

Chess tables in blue, 6 x 7.5" watercolour, February 2026

 

These trees have a blue-grey bark covered in dark yellow and deep green moss. Large leaves were strewn about. Cilei and I tidied up the leaves and picked up some trash before leaving. 

Mossy tree big leaves, 6 x 7.5"  watercolour , February 2026

 

Dotted along the highway are small motels painted in bright colours and decorated with things like hearts or hot peppers shaped like lips. Instead of front doors, they have a large garage door that lets people in from the highway, like a drive through motel? In the background are the tall jungle trees I painted a few days back during sunset. Cars and trucks rumbled by. 

Roadside ♡♡♡ motel, 6 x 7.5" watercolour, February 2026 

Paulista museum and jungle gardens

Located down town in Paulista neighborhood, this is a side view of the Museu de Arte de São Paulo, MASM. It was built on large support pillars so as the maintain the horizon view, although you dont see the view on this angle. To enter you wait underneath the go up several flights of stairs. We were impressed with the blend of historical and contemporary paintings on the top floor, with modern installations and concept art on the basement floor. Some highlights were a self portrait by Rembrandt, indigenous Brazilian landscapes, and a collection of impressionist art including Van Gogh. There was actually a good variety of every painting era going back to the 14th century. 

MASP side view, 6 x 7.5" watercolour, February 2026 

 

Across the street is a large park with jungle gardens and a white-tiled network of paths, probably tiled with quartz. We saw a 1971 painting in the museum, and these tiles were around even back then. Over the years, patches of tiles have been lost. The spaces got filled up with dark grey asphalt. Moss and grime have grown over making the path a work of abstract art in itself. You see some of the jungle plants and trees in the background. 

Jungle gardens, 6 x 7.5" watercolour, february 2026 

More digital abstract art

Using the skerchbook phone app I can make endless doodles. With a bunch of brush options there are quite a few tricks to learn. I've been a prolific doodler since the first piece of paper was put infront of me, and I started doing abstract paintings frequently around the year 2000. Some of the colours like the magenta tongue and cyan sky in the image above are impossible to create with real watercolours. 

Tongue totem 800 x 1200 digital, February 2026 

At least digital art doesn't take up any physical space. I could do endless variations of these types of drawings. Andy Warhol was one of the first artists to make digital art in the 1980's, a company paid him to make art on their new computer drawing program. 

Three eye scribbles, 800 x 1000, digital February 2026

Going for a black and white scheme, this one made use of quite a few different brushes. Since it was grey scale I could add a lot more textural variations. Its possible to zoom in which facilitated the more detailed patterns. Its like finger painting in kindergarten again!

Bubble and pepper explosion, 800 x 1000 digital February 2026 

a few more colourful trees

Trees around the neighborhood here in Brazil are very colourful. In some cases we have similar plants in Canada but they grow indoors and are very small. Like geraniums, I saw them in the tropics once and they were the size of a medium tree. To make the purple colours I used combinations of magenta (PR122) dark blue (PB60) and deep magenta (PV55). 

Magenta purple tree, 6 x 7.5" watercolour, February 2026 

 

This tree was a type of croton, a popular house plant in Canada, but a 5 meter high tree in Brazil. I suppose many house plants originate from south America, like the snake plants grow wild here at the base of larger trees. They grow in the pockets created by spindly roots with very little soil. 

Croton tree, 6 x 7.5" watercolour, February 2026 

Full moon, steep road night

The moon was full on February 1st in São Paulo, with overcast conditions I got this view from up near the laundry platform, the moon was surrounded in a fuzzy yellowish halo. First I outlined the scene, then filled in details. When painting the moon, I started with the sky around it and left a circle ... I make the circle big and then adjust the circle until its circular...easier said than done. Then I washed it over with a yellowish glaze (PY43) to give it a fuzzy appearance.

Full moon over Park Ipe, 6 x 7.5" watercolour, February 2026

The Cotia neighborhood is very hilly. As you can see from this night painting, the road infront of the house is steep. Cars and motocycles labor to get up the hill which creates loud engine noises. Artificial light was the only source here which made colours odd. There are huge jungle trees in the background, painted as near black sihouettes against a dark blue sky. The tree colour was black (Pbk6) and perylene green (PBk31).

Steep hill night, 6 x 7.5" watercolour, February 2026